No. 1467

Beef Tongue a la Romaine

Langue de Boeuf a la Romaine

Remove from a beef tongue, the fat and cartilaginous part lying near the end. Soak it for one hour and a half in cold water, then put it into a saucepan sufficiently large to contain a gallon of water, adding salt, pepper and one onion with two cloves; let cook for three hours. Remove the skin covering the tongue, and place the latter on a dish, garnishing around it with small ravioles (No. 2976), mingled with gravy (No. 404), tomato puree (No. 730), and parmesan cheese; serve separately a Roman sauce (No. 534).

← No. 1466 Tenderloin of Beef with Vegetables—Whole Beef No. 1468 Beef Tongue a la Soligny →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have the rest of The Epicurean at your elbow: the numbered cross-references are separate recipes for ravioli, gravy, tomato purée and sauce romaine. The tongue itself is straightforward, and one step decides whether the dish works.

Peel it hotThe skin comes off cleanly only while the tongue is still steaming; once it cools the membrane bonds to the meat and you will tear the flesh getting it off. Lift it from the liquid, hold it in a towel, slit the skin lengthwise and strip it, then return it to the hot broth to keep it moist until serving.
Buy fresh, not curedThis reads as a fresh beef tongue, not the pickled or corned tongue sold in brine: the recipe salts its own cooking water and soaks the tongue only an hour and a half. A cured tongue would need much longer soaking and would come to the Roman sauce already salty; if all you can find is cured, soak and change the water several times and expect a pink, saltier result.
Cooking time is a floor, not a ruleThree hours suits a tongue of about 3 lb at a bare simmer. A 4-lb tongue often wants 3½ to 4 hours. The test is a skewer sliding into the thickest part with no resistance, and skin that peels away in a sheet.
Keep it below a boilA gallon of water in a large pot at a hard boil will toughen the muscle and cloud the broth. Hold it at 180-190F, barely trembling, and skim the grey foam in the first fifteen minutes.
Season the water properlyRanhofer gives no quantity for salt. For a gallon, about 2 tablespoons of kosher salt plus a teaspoon of peppercorns and the clove-studded onion is a reasonable court bouillon; taste the liquid before the tongue goes in.
"Ravioles"These are small ravioli; No. 2976 supplies the book's own stuffing, so work from that rather than a guess. Cook them separately and toss them with the gravy, tomato purée and grated Parmesan just before plating, so they do not gum together around the tongue.
Sauce romaineIn the classical repertoire Roman sauce is a sweet-sour brown sauce built on caramel and vinegar, usually with raisins or currants and pine nuts; see No. 534 for Ranhofer's own version. The recipe has it served separately rather than poured over, and its sharpness is what carries the fatty richness of the tongue.
Yield and carvingA 3-lb tongue serves six to eight. Trim the rough butt end, then slice on a slight bias, thin from the tip where the meat is firm and slightly thicker toward the base.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working system rather than a book of separate dishes, which is why the tongue here is really a set of instructions for assembling four other recipes. Beef tongue was not a curiosity in the nineteenth century but a standard cut, treated with the same seriousness as a roast; a large restaurant kitchen breaking down whole animals had tongues to use, and the long list of tongue preparations in this section of the book reflects that. The French classical cookery is attached to a range of different garnishes, and can point to the sweet-sour sauce romaine with raisins and pine nuts, a survival of the older European taste for sugar and vinegar with meat, and the ravioli and Parmesan around the dish are the kind of Italian gesture a Franco-American kitchen of the 1890s used to make a name legible to its diners.

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2026 Editor's Note: While organ meats like beef tongue have become less common in the United States since the early 20th century, they remain a staple of Mexican cuisine. In addition to European-style preparations like this one, tongue is frequently used in dishes such as tacos, soups, and entomadas, or prepared as Lengua en Estofado (tongue stew) with olives and jalapeños. (Ed: GG 2026-08-04)